Hey there! I'm Ryan, a game developer that's been making indie games for the last 12 years.

I'm currently working on the demo for a 2D, Mega Man Battle Network-inspired JRPG and am gearing up to do a crowdfunding campaign / pitch to funders. I'm looking to bring on a freelance gameplay designer to help with designing, implementing, and balancing enemies and combat content. 

General Information:

• This is a paid role. It is remote, but we are focusing on USA-based applicants at this time.
• Hours will be "as needed" or milestone-based. We're expecting a fairly consistent amount of part-time level work, but as we are pre pitch, we're trying to be budget conscious. 
• If you are hired, there is a 6-8 week probation period during which we will be evaluating the relationship. After this period we'll determine whether or not to continue collaborating.
• We are using Unity.
• We do not use generative AI in our projects!

Job Information:

• This role has a focus on combat and enemy gameplay design and implementation, but we're a small team, so it may also occasionally involve other design-adjacent work.
• You should be very knowledgeable about--if not obsessed with--JRPGs and probably MMBN as well. Additionally, familiarity with at least a few of the other products listed below will be important as these are inspirations for the things we are working on right now / might be working on in the future:
  • Mega Man Battle Network
  • One Step from Eden
  • Chained Echoes
  • Sea of Stars
  • Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
  • Tales of Symphonia
  • The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
  • Final Fantasy: Tactics Advanced
• Ideal candidate is someone that is extremely knowledgeable about JRPGS (especially indie ones) and is experienced creating and balancing content for those types of games in Unity. The ability to create placeholder pixel art and animations is a requirement. You don't need to be great, but should be comfortable making animations that communicate what is happening well. Experience modding or making MMBN/One Step from Eden content would probably be a welcome bonus, but not necessary.
• We expect our designers to have programming and in-engine development experience as they often get involved in building bespoke content or tools (think character controllers, enemy AI, puzzle interactions, unity inspectors, random design tools, etc).
• You should have a deep understanding of how content is created and implemented in Unity. Experience working on 2D tile-based games and with Tiled / SuperTiled2Unity is a major plus. There's a nonzero chance we use something else like Godot, but we are currently sticking with Unity.
• Additional experience making tools, streamlining content creation, and working with artists, programmers, and other designers is also desired.
• If you've ever released a Mega Man Battle Network fan-game or worked on a JRPG-adjacent / RPG Maker-like game make sure to let us know!

Studio Information:

• The studio is currently just me and anyone I work with on an as-needed basis (like you!). I've worked on many games over the last 12 years and I've been mostly self-funded that entire time! 
• I tend to work on a few internal projects at a time, and historically we have taken on contract work to fund things. The goal now is to generate income from our shipped products so we can sustain more of the studio through sales.
• Our focus is on developing and releasing games that are small for their genre. We might release what you'd call a "regular-sized" game one day, but our budgets are quite small and so the goal is to get known for delivering good, short experiences at a low to moderate price ($4.99 - $19.99)
• We communicate through our team Discord and currently use Trello for product/project management.
• More info at our website!

If you're interested hit the apply button down below! :)

I will aim to get "yes let's talk more" and "no, we're not interested" type emails sent out quickly.